Some male staffers at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ireland, one of the country's largest accountancy firms, are in hot water after circulating emails that ranked some of their female collegues based on appearance, the Independent reports:

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The emails were circulated between a group of up to 17 male staff members within PWC before being forwarded to other businesses as the emails went "viral", spreading across the internet.

The 13 women, whose pictures were accompanied by their names and departments, all recently joined the accountancy firm as trainee accountants or "associates" and are expected to train with the company for the next three years.

The offending emails were traced and are being examined by senior management at PWC, sources confirmed.

The initial email sent around by the group of men had a subject line of "this would be my shortlist for the top 10".

Who would have thought it was a bad idea to make a "shortlist" of your picks for the "Top 10" most attractive ladies at your company and pass it along via company e-mail? Really guys?

My favorite part though is one of the chaps who decided to participate and pass the email along requested his signiture be removed before it was forwarded again. Ha, yeah, next time he may want to think of a better strategy to protect his job.